MERCEDARIANS. - Religious order founded by St. Peter Nolasco in 1218 for the purpose of ransoming Christians enslaved by the Mohammedans. St. Peter Nolasco, with the protection of King James I and the counsel of St. Raymond of Peñafort, received in the cathedral of Barcelona, together with his first companions, on 10 August, from the hands of Bishop Berenguer de Palau, the white habit in honor of the Virgin.
The King granted his royal arms which, together with the Cross, formed the coat of arms of the Order. Nolasco established that not only all the goods and activities of the Institute should be dedicated to the liberation of slaves, but that, as the first Constitutions express it, «all the religious, as sons of true obedience, should be joyfully disposed at all times to give, if necessary, their own life, as Christ gave His for us» and that every religious should assume the obligation of remaining himself a slave in order to free, with the ransom money, those who were in danger of losing the faith (IV vow). The Order was approved in 1235 by Gregory IX, who assigned it the rule known as that of St. Augustine.
It had at first a predominantly military character and, in the first century, was governed by lay master generals; but from 1317 onward, the motives of redemption diminished, by priest generals. Soon there were aggregated to the Order, as confraters, families and isolated individuals who helped it with donations, collecting alms and providing care and assistance to the ransomed, the sick and the pilgrims in the infirmaries of the convents. For this purpose there also arose in 1265 the second female Order through the initiative of St. Mary of Cervellon. The Order developed in Spain, in France, in Portugal, in Italy, especially in the coastal cities, and carried out its redemptive work first in Spain and then in North Africa, where the Moors led the slaves. With the discovery of America it contributed greatly to its evangelization, with Fra Giovanni de Solórzano, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to Santo Domingo, Fra Bartolomeo de Olmedo in Mexico, Father Bovadilla in Panama, Father Marco Perez Danton in Guatemala, Father Giovanni de Salazar in Argentina, Father Antonio de Almansa and Antonio de Solís in Chile and others in Peru and Ecuador.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century there arose the Discalced Mercedarians, always dependent on the General of the Calced, and the cloistered Mercedarian nuns with the blessed Marianna of Jesus.
The Order had its greatest numerical and cultural development in the sixteenth century, but it dwindled afterward because of the revolutions, the Napoleonic wars and the various persecutions and suppressions. Father Pietro Armengaudo Valenzuela, elected general in 1880, was the new restorer of the Order, whose Constitutions he reformed, establishing that the Institute, while preserving the original purpose of redemption, should dedicate itself expressly to the practice of missions, to the Christian formation youth, works of charity and social assistance (prisons, reformatories, rehabilitation homes, etc.). Among the saints the Order counts, besides St. Peter Nolasco, St. Peter Pascasius, bishop and martyr, St. Serapius martyr, St. Peter Armengol, St. Raymond Nonnatus, cardinal, St. Mary of Cervellon or of Help, and the blessed Marianna of Jesus. Among the theologians and writers: St. Peter Pascasius (d. 1300), Father Natalis Gaver (d. 1474), Father Dominic of St. John (d. 1540), Father Jerome Perez (d. 1549), Father Gaspar de Torres (d. 1583), Father Francisco Zumel (d. 1670), Father Silvestro Saavedra (d. 1624), Father Peter de Ona, bishop of Gaeta (d. 1626), Father John Falconi (d. 1638), Father Ambrosio Machio, archbishop of Cagliari (d. 1640), Father Alfonso Remon, Father Gabriel Tellez (Tirso de Molina, d. 1648), Father Peter Armengaudo Valenzuela, bishop of Ancud (d. 1922), Father Manuel Sancho (d. 1936).
The Order presently has 9 provinces and 3 vice-provinces; it has missions in Brazil, in Ecuador and in Puerto Rico and 4 houses in the United States for the assistance of Italian emigrants.
FEMALE BRANCHES OF THE ORDER
Besides the two ancient ones already mentioned, they are: the Mercedarians of Berriz (v.) of Spain; the Mercedarians of Charity (Spain) with 109 among sanatoria, hospitals, hospices, leprosaria, prisons and colleges; the Mercedarian Missionaries with houses and colleges in Spain, Ecuador and Peru; the Mercedarians of the Child Jesus with various colleges in Argentina; the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy with numerous houses of assistance and education and hospitals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile and especially in Italy; the Mercedarians of the Most Holy Sacrament who devote themselves to the worship of the Eucharist with houses in Mexico, Havana, Spain, Italy; the Mercedarian Missionaries of Brazil who cooperate with the missions of Piani.
Bibliography2 works
Ordinis B.M.V. de Mercede, Palermo 1622; I. Linás, Bullarium Coelestis ac Regalis Ord. B.V.M. de Mercede, Barcelona 1696; U. Ribera, Centuria Primera del Real e Militar Istituto de N. S. de la Merced, ibid. 1726; J.A. Gari y Siumell, Biblioteca Mercedaria, ibid. 1875; G. Vasquez-Nuñez, Manual de Vitoria de la Orden, Toledo 1931; Buletin de la Orden de la Merced, General Curia Rome.
Vincenzo Ignelzi